1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a twin-roll continuous caster which includes a pair of cooling rolls having projections or ridges formed on surfaces thereof and which is configured to cast molten metal supplied to a molten metal pool between the pair of cooling rolls into a cast piece by cooling and solidifying the molten metal on the surfaces of the pair of cooling rolls.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed direct casting of a thin plate with a twin-roll continuous caster including a pair of cooling rolls. Further, with regard to the twin-roll continuous casters, there have also been proposed: slow cooling of molten metal at the time of solidification of the molten metal in order to prevent the cracking of a thin plate; and forming projections or ridges (providing a texture) on the surfaces of the cooling rolls in order to uniformize the thickness of a thin plate (solidified shell) <see, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2>. In the case of projections, since the solidification of molten metal such as molten steel starts from the tops of the projections, uniformly placing the projections causes the solidified shells to be uniformly produced and as a result uniformizes the shell thicknesses in the early stages of solidification. Similarly, also in the case of ridges, since the solidification of molten metal such as molten steel starts from the tops of the ridges, placing the ridges uniformly in the lateral direction uniformizes the shell thicknesses at least in the lateral direction.